NEW YORK (AP) — A mural depicting police in Ku Klux Klan hoods and a pistol-clutching Statue of Liberty has been unveiled in memory of an unarmed African immigrant killed by officers two years ago.

Harlem artist Hulbert Waldroup spray-painted the 20-by-35-foot mural, titled "The American Dream," on the exterior wall of a Bronx store on the same block where four officers fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, striking him 19 times.

"I think it's a fine representation of the state of affairs in the United States today," said 47-year-old neighbor Lloyd West. "The irony of it is that Diallo came for the American dream, and it turned out to be a nightmare."

The slaying — in Diallo's doorway by members of an elite street-crime unit — heightened racial tensions. The New York City officers were acquitted of murder after testifying they mistook the wallet Diallo pulled out of his pocket for a gun.

The mural, commissioned by store owner Joani Borrero, also shows a mammoth image of a smiling Diallo and a grave marker listing his Feb. 4, 1999, death.

The work has provoked debate about whether it should be painted over.

Borrero said he was offended by the gun-toting Statue of Liberty. After conferring with some of the dozen officers at the unveiling Tuesday, Borrero suggested it might be painted over.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who recently set up a "decency commission," to judge the morality of publicly funded art, did not return calls.

"Sometimes it's best to not get involved with these things because it only generates publicity," Patrolmen's Benevolent Association spokesman Joseph Mancini said.